I Want To Know
by goonimgone
Summary: Charlotte Page doesn't think much of Henry Hart, her absent-minded classmate, until a crazy day causes them to be linked together forever. Being around Henry pushes her to new limits and forces her to re-evaluate everything she thought to be true about herself. The only thing certain is that senior year won't turn out quite like she expected it to.
1. The Beginning

"As you all have probably noticed, I am extremely excited for Swellview High's production of _Hamlet_! I, of course, appreciate everyone up on time today...well, except for Mr. Hart. Like always. Does anyone know where Henry is?"

Charlotte sighed as she leaned back in her chair. She didn't know Henry Hart that well, but it was quite evident that he felt the need to be late every day. Turning around, she noticed that his friend Jasper was sitting in the row behind her. "Any idea where blondy is this time?"

"He's just running late," Jasper answered. "Should be here any sec!"

Charlotte rolled her eyes but didn't question him any further. Their theater teacher was still talking, but she decided to zone out instead of listening. The only reason Charlotte had chosen theater as an elective this semester was because she truly enjoyed art and fashion; working backstage on costume design for the school musical was the best way to express that part of herself.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jasper and his boyfriend huddled over his phone, probably texting Henry that his absence had been noted. Jasper's boyfriend had his arm around the other boy, rubbing circles into his arm.

Romance wasn't something that Charlotte thought about often, but the older she got the more she noticed her peers beginning to find love. Jasper and his boyfriend were adorable - was that what she wanted, though? The idea of entrusting someone with your deepest secrets and embracing intimacy terrified her. Of course, she'd never admit that to anyone else. Despite being pretty, smart, and fashionable, rejecting anyone who showed even the slightest bit of interest in her had become almost automatic.

Ms. Veal's rambling was interrupted by the auditorium's doors slamming open. The whole class turned to look. Henry burst into the room, quickly settling down next to Charlotte. His backpack wasn't zipped up all the way, exposing his crumpled up assignments and empty snack wrappers to the world. Ms. Veal blinked rapidly, slightly offended that he had stolen the attention of her students.

"Are you going to be late every day this semester? Nice of you to finally join us, Mr. Hart." She shook her head in disappointment. "Now, as I was saying…"

"Did you really have to sit next to me?" Charlotte griped, lightly kicking Henry's bag further away.

"All of the seats in Jasper's row are taken!"

"Guys, can't we just get along?" Jasper interrupted the two. Their bickering was definitely not new, but he cared more about the musical than hearing them go at it.

All three of them had attended the same elementary school, but Henry zoned into a different middle school. So, Charlotte had known Henry for a long time - and they had never gotten along. Charlotte Bolton-Page was always on time; he was always late. Charlotte Bolton-Page had a 4.0 GPA and wanted to get a degree in Biology; he failed history tests. Charlotte Bolton-Page thought every action through, considering every possibility before doing anything; he let life guide him and didn't mind riding waves of uncertainties. With all of these obvious differences, a personality clash was inevitable.

Once they got to the ninth grade, they were again all attending the same school. Charlotte had seen little of Henry within the past three years, but heard plenty of gossip about his chronic lateness. Now, they were all in the same theater class, and she was seeing way more of Henry than she needed to.

After Jasper's interruption, Henry had decided not to continue his argument with Charlotte, instead turning back to the front.

"My goal for today is for every actor to try on their stage costumes. Charlotte, can you round up all the other backstage people?"

Charlotte gave Ms. Veal a thumbs up before she leaped into action. "Alright, stagehands! Come on, we've got work to do."

Henry fidgeted with the white button down, taking in his reflection in the mirror.

"Does it fit?" Charlotte asked.

"Yeah, fits perfect."

"Great!" Charlotte beamed. "You can go take it off now."

"Alright, cool." Henry chuckled, walking over to the costume rack where Charlotte was standing. "You know, Jasper had told me that you were really good at stuff like this, but I'm still surprised at how good these costumes are."

Charlotte blinked. Okay, that was unexpected. He was complimenting her now?

Jasper and her had been friends since they first met, and they hung out often, so she knew that he had also kept in contact with Henry throughout middle school. It was still surprising though that Henry knew enough about her to be aware of her artistic abilities. "Well, thanks. I'm sure you'll be fine on opening night."

"Honestly, I've never read Hamlet. I forgot to sign up for classes and I got randomly placed into theater." Henry ran a hand through his unruly hair, which made it stick up even more. "Ugh, and I really need to stop oversleeping. I didn't even have time to shower this morning."

Charlotte grimaced. "Gross."

"Whatever! Jasper and I used to walk to school together, so he'd wake me up, but now that he has a boyfriend I'm always on my own."

"You've gotta admit, they're a really cute couple."

"Yeah, I wish I had something like that." Henry started to walk towards the bathroom, ready to change out of his costume. "I-"

His sentence was interrupted by the sound of glass breaking. Henry ran out onto the audiotorium's stage.

"Hey, Swellview! Bet you thought you'd seen the last of me." The villain cackled at the chaos that ensued as the students freaked out. Henry put together that the villain had broken the window into the auditorium, and noticed the stun ray machine he was holding.

"Oh my god, Henry! We need to hide." Charlotte had followed him on to the stage, and was now gripping his arm.

"You need to hide," Henry reached his hand into his pocket. "I'll be fine."

"Are you crazy? You don't know what this guy is capable of! We need to hide until Captain Man gets here." Unfortunately, villains popping up out of nowhere was not a surprising event in Swellview. The police were a good alternative, but everyone knew that betting on Captain Man was safest.

"Hey!" The villain locked his eyes on Charlotte and Henry. "We should have a talk." He smirked, aiming the stun ray at Ms. Veal. She froze in place.

The rest of the class scattered in different directions, not wanting to be the next person frozen. Henry held on to Charlotte's wrist and dragged her backstage.

"What am I gonna do…" Henry muttered to himself. He slammed open the bathroom, dragging Charlotte behind him.

"There's nothing you can do, except wait."

"Charlotte, you don't understand-"

"Don't think I didn't see you two! Just because you wouldn't play along with me, I'll come directly to you for a little surprise."

"He sounds really close to the door! What are we gonna do?" Charlotte exclaimed. She was so scared she couldn't even get mad about Henry bringing her into the men's bathroom.

Henry hesitated. He had an oath to never tell anyone his secret - but Charlotte and him were in serious danger with a crazy villain on his way to freeze them.

"Listen," Henry pulled the bubble blower out of his pocket, slowly, "I'm gonna blow a bubble. I'm gonna blow your mind."

"What?!"

Well, it was now or never. Henry blew, closing his eyes as he was transformed into Kid Danger. He could hear Charlotte's sharp intake of breath, but there was no time to deal with the consequences of what he had just done. There was a bad guy to take down.

"Oh, Captain Man, Kid Danger! How could I ever repay you?" Ms. Veal draped herself over Captain Man.

Captain Man shuddered, frantically gesturing towards Kid Danger. "Hey, kid…"

"Right!" He yanked Captain Man out of Ms. Veal's grip, walking them backwards out of the auditorium. "You're welcome, citizens of Swellview! Be safe!"

Charlotte was sitting at the back of the auditorium. Her hands were shaking. It wasn't out of the ordinary - all of her classmates were in various stages of distress. The two heroes had managed to get all of the frozen students back to normal before they left, but there was nothing that could be done for Charlotte. The boy who she thought was her annoying classmate was actually Captain Man's sidekick!

"Charlotte!"

She screamed, grabbing the hand that had settled on her shoulder.

"Hey, it's just me! Shh!" Henry pulled her close to him. "Listen, you cannot tell anyone what you saw today. If you do, I'll have to erase memories, and I do not have time for that."

"I'm shocked, obviously, but I won't tell anyone. I promise. It's actually pretty cool… if you and Captain Man ever need a super smart teenage girl to help out, I'm good at a lot of things."

Charlotte nudged Henry's shoulder. He laughed, but Charlotte could tell there was a hint of nervousness hidden in there.

"There is actually something you could help me with. You know how I'm always late?" She nodded. "Well it's not just at school. My family has noticed that I'm always missing dinner, and that I haven't been doing things I used to. Like - dating girls, playing basketball."

"..Because Captain Man keeps you busy."

"Yeah. So - if I were to have a girlfriend, that could be my excuse for when I have to run off and be a superhero, and it would make everyone less suspicious of me."

"But if you had a girlfriend, she'd be mad that you disappear all the time for no reason. What does any of this have to do with me?" Charlotte wrinkled her nose, leaning up so that she could make direct eye contact with Henry. He was working up to something.

"Well if you let me introduce you to my family and everyone at school as my girlfriend, you could help me keep up the front." Henry fidgeted and tried to avoid Charlotte's piercing glare. "You said you'd help with anything!"

Charlotte decided to not even grace Henry's craziness with a response. "I'm gonna go ask Ms. Veal if she wants me to work on the costumes after school still." She started to walk away, still in disbelief that he had the gall to come up with such a ridiculous idea.

"Captain Man wants to talk to you!" Henry whisper-shouted. He knew that was the only thing that would make her turn around.

"Right now?" Charlotte hesitated, indecisive on whether or not she was going to walk back toward him.

"You'll get to see our...lair." Henry smirked and held open the backdoor to the auditorium for her. "No one expects us to be at school for the rest of the day after that attack. People are calling their parents to pick them up." All around them, their classmates were on their phones, terrifying their parents with tales of the evil villain that they had been saved from only moments before. Ms. Veal herself was stress eating a giant bag of fruit snacks.

Charlotte was going with Henry either way at the point - she had to see where Captain Man operated his heroics from. But still... "Lair?" She asked, knowing her questioning would fluster the boy. He blushed, just like Charlotte predicted he would.

"Come on!"


	2. Phase Zero

"Henry, this is crazy!"

"You offered to help us - well, this is how you can."

The two teens walked into Junk 'N Stuff while they argued. Charlotte was still struggling to wrap her mind around what Henry had asked, but in the meantime he had informed her Captain Man wanted to talk immediately.

Part of Charlotte was terrified to meet the famous superhero. What would he say to her? What would he do? Henry had mentioned something about 'memory wiping.' She wasn't sure if it was even possible, but that was definitely not her idea of a fun Friday night. Another part of her was just conflicted about Henry's idea. She wasn't even friends with Henry, really. She had entered into this secret world with no warning.

"So, this might scare you a bit, but this is how we get to the Man Cave…" Henry gestured at the elevator, watching his classmate with a raised eyebrow.

Charlotte shrugged and walked in beside him. What could be scary about an elevator?

"HENRY-"

Charlotte's stopped screaming as they finally reached the Man Cave. Henry helped her off the elevator, not able to hide his smirk. She glared at him.

"Hey, Ray, this is Charlotte. Charlotte, this is Ray."

"Also known as Captain Man," Ray boasted, looking up from the bag of popcorn he had been devouring. "Henry told me everything that happened before the attack already. What I need to know is, are you gonna go around exposing our identities to everyone?"

"She's really smart, she wouldn't do that," Henry answered for Charlotte, reaching around Ray to take some of his popcorn.

"What Henry said is right." Charlotte glared at him out of the corner of her eye. She didn't need anyone to answer for her. "I would love to help you guys with anything you need."

"Not really. You won't be my fake girlfriend," Henry interrupted. Ray chuckled and glanced between the two of them. Charlotte looked like she could explode any second, while Henry was completely unfazed.

"Fake girlfriend? What's up with that."

"There's been so much craziness lately in Swellview I haven't had time for my family and friends, girls, or school. I feel like it's way more noticeable right now how flaky I've been. If I had a fake girlfriend, it could be my excuse for acting weird, and help keep the Kid Danger thing under wraps. Charlotte knows my identity now, so she can cover for me and won't be mad at me for not doing boyfriend stuff because she knows the truth!" Henry clapped his hands together and turned towards Charlotte expectantly.

Ray stroked his chin. "Sounds like a pretty solid idea to me."

"Okay, whatever, but what would I get out of this? Sounds like this only benefits Henry," Charlotte snapped. "Maybe if I could get a nice afterschool job I'd be more inclined to go along with the fake relationship." She settled into the couch that was in the middle of the Man Cave and stared intently at Ray.

"Ray?"

"Let's see if she passes the test," Ray answered. He went around to the back of the Man Cave and came back with a jar of pickles. "This jar is closed super tight. If you can open this, I'll hire you." He laughed and turned around to slap Henry's shoulder. "She'll never-"

Before Ray could even finish his sentence, Charlotte threw the jar to the ground, causing it to shatter into tiny pieces. "There's your pickle."

"I'm gonna introduce you to my family as my girlfriend-"

"What, we're just gonna jump into it like that?" Charlotte paused outside of the Hart home. "And, Piper already knows me. I designed her Cactus Con dress. She _knows _that we're not even friends."

"So? Let's just say we've gotten closer and started dating," Henry unlocked the front door to his house, "which is actually kind of true." Henry dropped his voice to a whisper. "I had to tell you my secret, and now we're gonna spend way more time together because we both work at Junk 'N Stuff."

"Shoot, I didn't consider that when I asked for a job.."

"Charlotte!"

"Henry?" Mr. and Mrs. Hart were in the living room watching the evening news. Charlotte could tell that his mother was confused when she saw her.

"Great, you're both here. This is my girlfriend!" Henry wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to his side. She winced. Hopefully his parents wouldn't notice that.

"Is this why you've been so busy lately?"

"Yes...I'm...all in love and everything." Henry gulped, and noted for the future that he was not as good at lying as he thought. He could practically feel the judgement rolling off in waves from Charlotte. "Her name is Charlotte. We met at school."

"It's nice to meet you," Charlotte greeted the Harts, discreetly elbowing Henry to unwrap himself from around her. It was obvious she needed to step in. "Henry and I have gotten closer recently, but now it's official. I'm his girlfriend." She shook their hands before turning back to Henry, and linking their arms together. "Hen?"

He blinked. Wow, she even came up with a nickname right on the spot. Charlotte really was a genius. "Is Piper here?" Henry asked.

"No, she said something about some limited edition popup store."

"Awesome," Henry exhaled. Everything was always easier when Piper wasn't around. She was more of a concern than his parents when it came to someone finding out his secret. His little sister was smart, loved to gossip, and didn't care about invading his privacy.

"Don't sound so thrilled," Charlotte griped, tugging on his arm.

"Right, right." Henry waved to his parents and walked over to the stairs. "Charlotte's gonna help me study for my math test tomorrow."

"Make sure studying is all you do!" Mr. Hart sang. He pulled down his reading glasses to give them a knowing look.

"Trust me, you guys have nothing to worry about," Henry deadpanned.

"Nice work back there."

"Hey, I understand sarcasm! You're really rude sometimes." Henry threw himself onto his bed, shielding his eyes dramatically.

"Whatever. We should go over some things. Like what are we gonna tell Jasper?"

Charlotte sat down at the edge of his bed with her legs crossed.

"I've actually wanted to tell Jasper about the hero stuff for a long time now, but Ray won't let me. The only reason he didn't freak out about you knowing is because it was out of necessity."

"Well, we could tell him about us dating, but say it's a secret." Charlotte looked around Henry's bedroom, and noticed that it was surprisingly clean. She had expected a total mess. "If he doesn't tell anyone - especially if he manages to keep it from his boyfriend - you can use that as proof for Ray that he's trustworthy."

Henry sprung up. "Charlotte! Yes! That's an amazing idea." He held out his fist to her and she instinctively bumped her fist against his.

"Jasper is probably my best friend. No one else likes putting up with me always disappearing and canceling plans."

"He's a good friend," Charlotte agreed. "You and I not getting along has always bothered him so he'll be pretty pumped that we're 'dating.'"

"That's true." Henry reached underneath his bed and pulled out his laptop. "Well, since we're here, you wanna write my English paper?"

"Henry!"

"I had to try!"


End file.
